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“Love 2” is the title of the latest album to come from Parisian duo Jean-Benoit Dunckle and Nicolas Godin. Released in October, it marks a return to the pair’s spaced-out 1970s-inspired electronica sound found on their earlier works, most notably 1998’s “Moon Safari.” It’s the sound for which they’re best known, a sound that indeed would be the most fitting mood music to accompany a lunar excursion, just as the name suggests. And it’s set to land in San Diego Saturday, when the band makes its first local appearance in two years at 4th&B.

Much to the dismay of Air traditionalists (a sort of crossbreed between your average hippie and midcentury furniture fetishist), in recent years the group had detoured from its trademark blend of sedated prog-rock and wandering synthesized melodies. Their last album, 2007’s “Pocket Symphony,” was a subliminal ode to Japan for which Godin learned a number of traditional Japanese instruments, including the koto and the samisen.

“Love 2,” then, comes as a long-awaited homecoming for Air, who are arguably pharaohs of the chillwave rage that’s currently on the rise within the realm of 20-something independent musicians. Dunckle’s androgynous, monotone whisperings throughout the album sound almost Martian, aided by his slight lisp. “African Love” could possibly be the closest a guitar has ever come to batting open a set of come-hither bedroom eyes. The one-worded “Love” pits bossa nova against samples of cicadas and other jungle creatures going bump in the night. “Do the Joy” brings to life to all the reasons Dad said to never touch LSD.

Favorites of director Sofia Coppola, they’ve forged a second career by lending a hand in scribing the soundtracks for several of the indie queen’s films, including “The Virgin Suicides” and “Lost in Translation.”

Air’s inspiration may be purely retro and tailored for listening to while seated in an Eames chair, toes deep in burnt sienna shag carpeting, but that’s not keeping them from keeping up with the times. Earlier this month, they launched an interactive iPhone app that allows users to record and mix samples of their own voice with five different Air tracks.

The group’s last local performance was at Street Scene 2007, where, when asked what he looks forward to when playing shows in Southern California, Godin made no mention of romping in whitecapped waves, submerging himself eternal sunbathes or any other West Coast cliché that would no doubt easily match up with about 90 percent of their songbook. Instead, he merely said, “I want to eat at In-N-Out Burger.”